Connecting at Christmas the high-tech wayASHER MOSES
December 23, 2009 - 1:57PM
The Brisbane-based members of the Dobinson family gather for their trans-continental Christmas feast. Photo: Paul Broben
..Three generations of the Dobinson family gathered around a table for a Christmas feast this morning for the first time ever, a remarkable feat considering they were spread out across three cities around the world.
The tyranny of distance was bridged thanks to state-of-the-art video conferencing technology that has typically been the preserve of high-flying executives but will soon begin making inroads into the home.
Far removed from the traditional Skype home video conferencing experience - which is low quality and requires users to gather around a tiny computer screen - the Cisco TelePresence system uses large screens and high-definition (HD) cameras to create the impression that all participants are sitting in the same room together.
The Dobinson family, based in Sydney, Brisbane and the US, won Cisco's "Christmas Connections" competition, which asked families to submit their stories for the chance to connect using TelePresence.
The three eldest sisters - Claire (83), Athlone (80) and Sonia (73) - have been separated since just after World War II, when Claire emigrated to the US.
The younger sisters have only seen Claire twice in the intervening years and with their health in decline, an in-person Christmas reunion would have been all but impossible.
But this morning, about 20 family members in Sydney, Brisbane and the US city Herndon, which is just outside Washington D.C., gathered virtually around the same table for a Christmas feast that none of them will forget in a hurry.
"You can talk on email and you can talk on the phone but to actually see people and interact immediately was the most special bit," said Danelle Dobinson, 56, who is Athlone's daughter.
"It was quite funny because it was just like a crazy Christmas dinner anyway, with everyone talking over the top of everybody else and vying for attention and trying to get their message out.
"We had to call for order at one stage."
The event was bitter sweet for the family because it may be the last time they see Claire, who is seriously ill.
"It was especially hard because we weren't sure how she [Claire] would be health-wise and as it turned out she couldn't talk to us and was sleeping most of the time, but we did get to see her," Danelle said.
Cisco TelePresence systems cost between $20,000 and several hundred thousand dollars a piece, far out of reach for most punters. They have been adopted by over 350 organisations around the globe, including ANZ, Telstra and the Federal Government in Australia.
But Peter Hughes, the general manager of Cisco's collaboration business, said versions for the consumer market would be launched within around a year.
"Between Sydney and London or Sydney and New York there is no perceived delay or latency on the call at all," he said.
Already, companies including Microsoft and Logitech sell consumer webcams that attach to PCs and are capable of delivering HD audio and video.
But Hughes said Cisco's systems would be designed to connect up to the big screen TVs in living rooms.
He said consumers were now recording a lot of their video memories in HD using the latest gadgets, and would soon expect to get the same experience from real-time online chat.
"We believe that video is going to really, truly scale human interaction and the capabilities that we have with the technology today mean that it's as good as being there," he said.
Source: smh.com.au
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment